Friday, February 15, 2013

The Great Homemade Milk Experiment

I recently checked out a book from the library called Living Raw Food, which inspired me with its variety of homemade non-dairy milk recipes. I decided to try them out and see if I liked any of them better than my usual brand of almond milk.

First I made hemp milk. It was super thick. I strained it through a fine mesh sieve.

It was still quite thick, and the hemp milk grounds tended to collect at the bottom of the glass (even after straining). If I made this again, I would double the amount of water, to thin it out. I can't decide how I feel about the earthy, green flavor that the hemp seeds impart. Sometimes I find it gross, but other times I like it. Kind of like drinking wheatgrass juice.

Next I made coconut milk, using dried, shredded coconut. This had a more "milky" consistency i.e. not so thick and creamy. For coconut milk lovers, this is probably a cheaper option than buying it at the store. Personally, I am not a huge coconut milk convert. I prefer nut milks.

That brings us to my third experiment, cashew milk. Living Raw Food suggests a shortcut of using cashew butter instead of soaked raw cashews. This milk was the fastest to make, did not require straining, and had the best flavor out of the three. I liked it so much I made another batch when my first pitcher ran out.

Cashew butter is pricy ($14 per jar at the food co-op), so I'm not sure how much money I would save making this at home instead of buying my usual almond milk. But now I know I enjoy the taste of cashew milk. I guess the next step is to make it with raw cashews, which would be cheaper than using cashew butter, and see how we like that. I should also try making my own almond milk.

2 comments:

I've been toying with the idea of homemade milks. I decided to get a jelly bag last weekend to use in place of a nut milk bag. We'll see if it is cost effective & tasty. Would love to know the ingredients for the cashew milk using the butter.